Assignment: Enterprise
by Susan Hilton
Summary: Pavel Chekov is recruited by Gary Seven to save the lives of the Enterprise bridge crew when Kahn takes over the ship. In my opinion, this is the only plausible explanation as to how Kahn could have known him. I am also attempting to explain what the rest of the crew were doing behind the scenes, something that wasn't clear in "Space Seed". PLEASE REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1

Assignment: Enterprise

Chapter one

Pavel Chekov sat nervously in the academy superintendent's office. He was a young man, barely twenty-one years old. He knew he had graduated at the top of his class, but he still was anxious about being called in. The superintendent was named Gina Randolf. She was a tall, stern older woman, and more often than not, when a cadet was called into her office, it was for disciplinary actions. Her hair was gray and very short. She rarely smiled. As she entered the room, Pavel's first instinct was to stand at attention. He did so, and to his relief, Randolf spoke softly.

"At ease, Cadet." She looked into the handsome young Russian's eyes and could tell that he was anxious as he reseated himself. "I have called you in today because you will be given a dual assignment. You are an exceptionally gifted young man, Chekov. Your main assignment will be on the Federation's flag ship, the Enterprise. Your aptitude tests indicate that you are very good at engineering. You will be working under Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott once your actual tour of duty begins next year."

"What is my other assignment?" Pavel asked, his face lightening up. He was obviously very excited about joining the crew of the finest ship in Starfleet.

"He will be beaming in soon." Randolf was still standing, and started to pace, her hands clasped behind her back. "I have made sure that there are no listening devices in this office, for your other assignment is top secret and will be discussed with no one, not even Captain Kirk. Is that clear, Cadet?"

"Uh, yes ma'am." Pavel responded with a puzzled frown on his young face. There was a whirring sound from behind the very comfortable green leather bound chair he was sitting in, facing the superintendent's large ebony office desk. Pavel followed Randolf's gaze as an older gentleman materialized in a blue haze.

"Good. Ah, Mr. Seven. So good of you to drop in. This is the young man I told you about. Mr. Chekov, this is Gary Seven. He is an intergalactic secret agent, assigned to the late twentieth and early twenty-first century Earth's Men In Black. When you are not on the Enterprise, you will be working for him."

"The twentieth century? How is that possible?" Pavel asked, staring in astonishment at the new arrival.

"Mr. Seven has use of extremely advanced technology, Chekov. He is able to transport through time. Also, in Seven's time period, no one really believes in the Men In Black. Because of some movies that were made about them, recruiting has become more difficult. They have to do their recruiting very carefully, and often they chose people from the future, such as yourself."

Seven spoke with a slight smile playing on his lips.

"You're a Russian." He observed. "That might present a problem. People in the era I am from are not too fond of Russians. While you are in the United States in the twentieth century, you will have to keep a low profile in public because of the cold war."

"I understand." Chekov paused in thought for a moment. "What is my assignment?"

"It's a rather straight forward one for your first, Chekov. You will be staying in the twenty-third century, for the most part. Your first assignment will be on the Enterprise. You will be there to save the lives of the bridge crew when they encounter that madman, Kahn Noonian Singh. You must stop him from killing them when he shuts off the life support to the bridge." Randolf paused for effect as Pavel took this all in. "I must warn you, though. Keep as low a profile as you can. Don't let anyone know what you are there to do and stay as inconspicuous as possible. I know that part will be a bit difficult, since you are very attractive." She paused with a slight smile as Chekov blushed. "You will be on the Enterprise a year before you actually joined the crew. Lieutenant Kevin Riley, who is no longer supposed to be on board the ship, and therefore has no official Starfleet status, is staying in his old vacant quarters. You will no doubt be spending time there too, since you are not yet a member of the crew. You two will have a small advantage, being that Kahn will not know you are on board. Riley has been briefed about your arrival and about the history of this event, and he is the only one who knows about this. He will be your contact man once you get there. You and he will be issued communicators that will be connected directly with Mr. Seven. Use yours if you get into any trouble. Good luck."


	2. Chapter 2

Assignment: Enterprise

Chapter Two

To Yeoman Tracy Mears*, it was just another day in the maintenance section of engineering when the casualty was beamed over from the derelict sleeper ship. The night before, much to her chagrin, she had learned that once again the male establishment at UESPA headquarters had changed the rules about rank advancement. She was upset about that, for she had been trying to make ensign for two years, and this Russian guy she heard about, who was going to be fresh out of the academy next year and green as grass, would become an ensign just like that. He was no smarter than she, and she felt that he certainly did not deserve to become an ensign based on his grades. What really got her steamed was that women in Starfleet had to be twice as good as men to even be noticed. During her first adventure, which almost became her last, she felt she had little to do on the shuttle craft, except be eye candy for the men. It had been her idea to electrify the hull to scare the huge, murderous hairy creatures away on Taurus Two so that they could achieve escape velocity. She knew that Spock thought it was a great idea, but he didn't give her credit for it. He had used his telepathy to glean the idea from her mind.** Since there was no counselor serving aboard the Enterprise at that time, she did not have the opportunity, or the guts for that matter, to complain to the captain. She felt that Starfleet was once again being unfair to women. She sighed as she started her duty shift, thinking of the many disadvantages women had in the service. She thought that women should have equal rights by now, nearly three hundred years after the Woman's Liberation Movement of the nineteen seventies. Her gender could not even become starship captains, which, she felt, was another example of male stupidity. She felt that no matter what a woman did to achieve equality, men held them down. There was still a glass ceiling for women, even in her advanced culture. They were still expected to be slaves to men, and if they dared to fall in love and get married to the few decent ones, they would be unceremoniously drummed out of the service. It was also a fact that she was only one of two women on the ship who chose a career in a traditionally male field: engineering. The other was her best friend, Yeoman Janice Rand, who was being trained to be a transporter technician. Mears thought that Scott was no more progressive than any other male crew member. He seemed to approve of the way women were treated, giving her the most menial jobs in the maintenance section, such as sweeping the floors and dusting the councils in the auxiliary control section. She perceived him as a male chauvinist pig, for she was capable of so much more.

It was still rather early in the morning, and there was nobody around. She decided to play a practical joke on her male shipmates; the same one they played on her during a minor hazing when she first joined the crew. She loosened all the long handles to the storage cabinets in the auxiliary control room, adjacent to main engineering, little knowing that, in doing so, she would be giving the captain a weapon to defeat the madman who was still unconscious in sickbay.

Pavel Chekov materialized in Riley's quarters a couple of days later, right after Kahn had been released from sickbay. Riley knew that they didn't have a lot of time. To Riley, Chekov, at first, seemed to be little more than a frightened child, afraid of pushing the wrong button. He then decided to put himself in the younger man's place. It was very unusual for someone fresh out of the academy to be drafted into Seven's covert organization and beamed into his quarters. He remembered when he was first recruited. It was right after he was poisoned by the insane daughter of Kodos the executioner. One of the Karidian players was an operative for Seven. It took little time for Riley to discover that Chekov was quite intelligent. Both he and Riley thought it was dumb of the captain to let Kahn read technical manuals during his convalescence, even though there was nothing they could do about that. Since both men were not supposed to be on the ship, they couldn't charge into sickbay and announce to everyone that this was an Al-Quaida madman who planned to take over the ship. That would not only change history, but would alter their fates as well. Marla Magivers, whom he thought was the dumbest broad he had ever met, had fallen for the burly creep, fixed her hair differently for him, and was even throwing a party to welcome him to the twenty-third century. Of course, to be fair, he realized that she didn't know who he really was. However, this gave him and Chekov a little extra time to do what they must do. Riley had foreknowledge of Kahn's devious plot to kill the captain, thanks to Mr. Seven, not only on the bridge, but in sickbay. They must at least save Kirk from being asphyxiated in the medical decompression chamber. While the party was going on, they sneaked into sickbay and disconnected the controls for the chamber. They would make it look functional, but nothing would happen to the captain, except that he would get a little light-headed when he used up the oxygen in the small enclosure. Riley knew that Marla would have no knowledge of the inner workings of the medical equipment, and if they did nothing, the captain would surely die. They also knew that nobody would be getting the bends in the foreseeable future. After completing that task, they planned to hide in the main auxiliary control room and await the time when Kahn would trap the bridge crew and try to suffocate them, cutting off the life support to the bridge. When everyone had lost consciousness on the bridge, Riley planned to beam Chekov onto the bridge, wearing an oxygen mask, using intraship beaming, restore life support, and lock Kahn out of the main computer system with a small advanced device that Mr. Seven had supplied. He would be doing his part too, remotely fixing communications and the exit routes on the bridge in the auxiliary control room.

* The real first name of the actress who played Yeoman Mears was Phyllis. However, to me, she didn't look like a Phyllis. Being that she wasn't given a first name in the one episode she was in, I supplied her with one.

** "The Galileo Seven"


	3. Chapter 3

Assignment: Enterprise

Chapter Three

Riley had been keeping Seven apprised of their progress. It was time to go and save the bridge crew. Riley's quarters were near engineering, and both he and Chekov heard a commotion as some of Kahn's men had been revived and had taken over the lower decks, trapping the bulk of the crew in the shuttle bay and in the other parts of engineering. Some people had taken the precaution of boarding the shuttle crafts in the hangar deck, in case Kahn decided to depressurize the bay. Since there were not enough shuttles for four hundred people, the others were devising ways of escaping via the Jeffries tubes and the service crawl ways. The remaining twenty were being held under guard in the main conference room. The bridge crew were in trouble and there wasn't much time left to save them. Within fifteen minutes, if Riley and Chekov didn't act quickly, the bridge crew would suffocate.

Chekov watched with interest as Riley took out a pen-like device from the top drawer of his dresser. It chimed as he activated it.

"What do you plan to do, Riley? Write them to death with your fancy silver pen?"

"This isn't a ball point pen, Chekov. It's a weapon called a servo. Seven issued it to me before we left."

"When do I get one?" He asked, obviously impressed.

"When you grow up. Let's get going."

"Where to?"

"The supply cabinets. We have to get you an oxygen mask, a gun belt and a phaser."

Yeoman Mears had already been to the transporter room, which was now unguarded. Soon, however, she saw Marla Magivers returning, brandishing a firearm, about to return to the sleeper ship in order to revive the remainder of Kahn's men. Tracy couldn't let her do that. A fight ensued, as Tracy thought that Marla had killed Kyle. She had fallen in love with him. Angrily, she punched Marla square in the stomach, and as she bent over, she whacked her in the face. Marla dropped to the deck, now with a bloody nose and in a fetal position. The gun clattered to the floor. She recovered quickly, though, and a bit shaken, stood. Luckily, the transporter chief was only stunned. However, Tracy didn't know that.

"You stupid murdering cow!" Tracy shouted furiously, finally grabbing the gun from the floor as the older woman stood up.

"Striking a superior officer is a court martial offense, Mears!" Magivers said breathlessly.

"There is nothing superior about you, you empty headed sack of shit! You not only murdered John, you betrayed the crew!" As Marla tried to grab the phaser from her, Tracy stunned the lieutenant, a moment later realizing that Kyle was alive and stirring. Relieved about that and now with a weapon, she quickly made her way out of the room and to the storage cabinets on the next deck. She usually treated her superior officers with more respect, but she felt that Magivers deserved what she got. Anyway, it made no difference. Marla was going to be court martialed for her actions, and who was going to care about a few insults? This little scuffle in the transporter room was going to save the ship. Tracy thought that Marla should have her head examined, hooking up with a creep like Kahn. What was she thinking? She decided to use a Jeffries tube, because she came to the logical conclusion that Kahn had probably also managed to disable the turbo lifts. When she emerged, she realized that she had been seen by one of Kahn's men. Before she could react, he grabbed her and forced the weapon from her grasp, crushing it in his powerful hand. As he threw it to one side and started to strangle her with his bare hands, Riley fired his servo. Both Tracy and the criminal fell to the deck, Tracy from lack of oxygen and the guard from a servo stun. Chekov and Riley dragged her back to his quarters and to safety.

"Is she all right?" Chekov asked with concern.

"No, but she will be. Let's get going. The bridge crew is about to suffocate."

"We cannot just leave her here! She obviously needs medical attention!"

"Agreed." Riley took out his communicator and contacted Mr. Seven, who dispatched another agent named Isis, who, as a shape shifter, disguised herself as Nurse Chapel.*

From a utility belt, Riley took out a small device and handed it to Chekov as he donned a gas mask. "Here. Use this on the controls. It will block Kahn's access to the computer on the bridge and at the same time restore life support. I trust that Seven told you how to plug it in."

"Da. I know how." Chekov replied a bit irritably. "It fits into a computer slot like the old Russian invention, the floppy disk drive."

After they made it to the supply cabinet and procured the items they needed, they raced to the transporter room. When they arrived, Kyle had recovered and had a phaser trained on Magivers, who knew then that her goose was cooked. Kyle smiled as he saw the two men, but was curious to see Riley.

"Riley! I thought you had left the ship! Who is the kid in the gas mask?"

"There is no time to chat, Mr. Kyle. Beam the kid directly onto the bridge before they suffocate up there. Hurry!"

"Intraship beaming is a tricky thing, Mr. Riley."

"I am aware of that, Kyle. Just don't beam the little guy into a bulkhead."

Chekov looked up at the ceiling with a bit of embarrassment and frustration as he stepped onto the transporter pad. Kyle did as he was told. Within two seconds, Pavel materialized onto the bridge and went to work.

*Yes, I know that Chapel wasn't in "Space Seed", but, for the sake of this story, let's say she was.


	4. Chapter 4

Assignment: Enterprise

Chapter 4

For several months, Isis the shape shifter had already been on the Enterprise, posing as various lower-ranking medical personnel. Mr. Seven's orders had been specific: get to know Nurse Chapel and learn to imitate her mannerisms and speech patterns. Then, when the time was right, which was now, she would be able to pass herself off as the head nurse. Isis rarely spoke, preferring telepathy, but she was capable of doing so. At the moment, as she quickly made her way down the corridor, she was in the form of a very young yeoman named Tina Lawton.* The real Tina was trapped in the shuttle bay on the shuttle Copernicus. When Isis reached the prone unconscious form of the burly criminal who tried to kill Mears, she transformed into the guise of Nurse Chapel and dragged him into a nearby brig cell, raising the force field; at the same time relieving him of any concealed weapons on his person. The real Chapel was also trapped on one of the shuttle crafts. With that accomplished, Isis quickly made her way to Riley's quarters and rang the door buzzer.

"Who's there?" Riley's voice sounded tense and worried. He shouldn't have been. If it had been one of Kahn's minions, he or she wouldn't have been that polite. However, Isis knew that he was a very compassionate man, probably also concerned about Miss Mears, despite her reputation on board the ship as being a man hater. He thought she might change her attitude if she found out that two men had saved her life.

"Isis. Let me in."

"Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin. What is your pre-arranged phrase?"

"Roberta's star-shaped birth mark." Isis answered succinctly.

Riley smiled and then relaxed, noticing also with relief that Miss Mears was regaining consciousness. Roberta was one of Seven's newest recruits from the twentieth century, more than thirty years before those Men in Black movies were made. He cautiously opened the door, still holding his servo. Relieved as he recognized her, he relaxed.

"What took you so long?"

"I had to drag that creeping crud who tried to kill Miss Mears into a brig cell, Riley. Where is she?" Isis asked softly, in her usual cat-like manner. Riley frowned in disapproval.

"You know protocol. Use my code number. Also, you should now be imitating Nurse Chapel's speech patterns. Do you have the tri-ox compound?" He asked, gesturing to where the yeoman lay.

"Apologies, 159." Isis answered, now with a perfect imitation of Christine's voice as she stepped over to the yeoman. "Yes, I have it right here in my shoulder medical bag." As she spoke, she removed the hypo with the medicine and waved a scanner over the yeoman's supine body. Mears was lying on Riley's bed. Since Isis had been posing as medical personnel for a while, she had grown accustomed to using medical equipment. She was a quick study. Of course, all of her people were. Isis came from an advanced and highly intelligent race from a nearby star in the Ursa Major constellation.

"Is she all right?"

"She is recovering. She has a bruised larynx and will need to get to sickbay after the ship is retaken by the crew. Do not worry. She will be all right. You should leave, sir, before you are discovered. How is the cute young new recruit doing on the bridge?" She gave the stirring yeoman a shot as she spoke.

"He should be completing his task right about now and will beam out immediately afterward. Good luck...Christine." He answered with a slight smile, amazed at how quickly Seven's assistant was able to switch from sounding like a Caitian** to sounding exactly like Nurse Chapel. Soon after, he dematerialized, beaming his way back to Seven's apartment in the twentieth century, leaving the imitation Nurse Chapel alone with her patient. Isis also had the secondary assignment of removing the evidence that Seven's people had ever been on the ship and assuring her departure before the captain ordered the deployment of the anesthesia gas, which flooded all the decks, effectively ending Kahn's siege. Also, she knew that there would be the unsolved mystery of how Chapel could be in two places at once, but knew enough about humans to know the propensity of some for shrugging off minor mysteries in time.

Meanwhile, in the shuttle bay, the crew members in the shuttles had turned on the defensive shield systems, so Kahn and his men would not be able to board them. In the only shuttle equipped with defensive weapons, the people on the Copernicus were ready also to phaser any of Kahn's men who tried. There were seven other people on board besides Yeoman Lawton. Lt. Masters was the highest ranking officer on the shuttle, followed in rank by Bailey, who with the rest had often wondered if the shields or the craft's phasers would work as well in the hangar deck as they did in space. The others were Lt. Johnson, Lt. Leslie, Yeoman Ross, Yeoman Landon, and Yeoman Rand. Bailey had given Masters the suggestion of using the phasers if they needed to. She considered his suggestion to be undoable, though, because the safeties were on. They could not fire them on board the ship without proper authorization from security or the captain. Because of the circumstances, however, Masters admonished him to do so on her orders only, and only if it were to become absolutely necessary. She also considered the possibility that the shuttle's phasers might be too powerful to use on board the ship. They could end up putting a gaping hole in the Enterprise hull, dooming those who were not aboard the shuttle crafts in the hangar deck and adjoining sections to a gruesome but quick death.

On the bridge, Pavel soon completed his task. He had inserted the small device Riley had given him into a cassette slot at the captain's chair, where it remained, looking quite inconspicuous. To misdirect the madman who would soon be arriving back on the bridge, Chekov went near the main viewing screen and checked to see if the life support system was back on line. As he did so, he heard the main bridge doors open with a swish as Kahn and two of his men entered. With panic rising, Pavel switched on his communicator and made the near fatal mistake of using his name when contacting Mr. Seven.

"Chekov to Seven! Mission accomplished! Get me out of here!"

Before Kahn and his men could reach him, he dematerialized.

Furiously, Kahn raced to the controls where the man named Chekov had been standing seconds before. Finding nothing to reverse the process of restoring life support, he vowed to never forget the name of the man who stopped him from asphyxiating the bridge crew.

The End

*"Charlie X"

** A cat-like race from the animated series


End file.
